Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

It is not a net cost. Our agreement with the representative associations of the Defence Forces is that members of the Defence Forces who are entitled to security duty allowance for their security duty do not get it if they are also in receipt of Border duty allowance. The net cost is just over half of that €25 million.

The best explanation is that the Defence Forces have undergone a substantial modernisation and reorganisation process. We have reduced the size of the Army considerably and we have reorganised it, the Naval Service and the Defence Forces Reserve. To bring people with us, we needed to negotiate with the representative associations, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, and the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA. Over the years, we have needed to bring them along on various tough decisions.

Phasing out the Border duty allowance will not be liked by the Army. We did not try to reach simultaneous agreement on all difficult topics. Rather, we proceeded gradually and are only now discussing the withdrawal of Border duty allowances. I expect the process to conclude in the near future. I will not give a specific timescale.

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